The positives outweigh the negatives

Very well said. Loved the part about food haha… Arabs will feed any guests or hostages better food than they feed themselves. Generosity and effort made in cooking large meals makes us happy to be Arab

Mona, number eight was great! (Hey, that rhymed)! Another thing about us Arab is that we are very loyal to one another. Arabs will always stand by for other arabs no matter of religion, wheathr it be Christian or Muslim, we are all one and very close. I myself come from a very conservative 100% pure Jordanian family and AL HAMDILLILAH my family was strict on me growing up or else I probably would have been just like those other typical arab girls who try to blend in with the westerners and eventually become worse.

Addition to that, if you EVER refuse to eat, we find that very offensively and will literally shove food down your throat..Pshhh I aint’ playing!

Mona, about the chips and breadcrumbs, I’m surprised you don’t have dwalli stuck in between your keys, ha ha! Just kidding habibty. I love your blogs because they are REAL. Unlike many bloggers who over-stress their blogs which leads them to OVER BULLSHIT..haaaaa!! love yaaaa sistaaa ♥

***100% Jordanian Christian family****

@Mary Barahmeh
Thats true, I know Christian and Muslim Palestinians are like brothers.

9-Arabs invented the following: 0, soap, coffee, pin-hole camera, cough syrup, University and the list goes on…..

10-Arabs speak the richest language in the world and the best language for poetry, since Arabic is the richest and best language for self expression. Arabic is pure, it did not derive from any language, we Muslims believe that because it is the language of heaven. The Arabic language has a nickname: The language of ض. The pronunciation of this letter is ONLY found in Arabic and no other language.

Arabic language:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d45t6yTASkU

Poetry in Arabic on Jerusalim (Plaestine):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GGP89OhAaU&feature=related

A FOR ARABS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t really have any friends from Arab before this. Hence I cannot comment anything about it. But I like this post. ;D

A Jordanian once said, “Arabs are different between region with each own
clothing, foods, languages, history, etc. But they do share things in
common. You are an Arab when:

First, Your mother throw shoes at you when you were a kid.

Second, You call everyone with no blood relation with uncle and auntie.

Third, You’re looking at other Arab in non-Arab countries.

Fourth, You take off your shoes when entering the house.

Fifth, You believe Palestine is yours”

hehehee.

nr. 5 is really annoying.. okej if you mention it ones, cause your proud, but then when it comes up in every conversation… oh and my son, who is a doctor… save me.

@mohamed

Our hindu friends invented the 0.

The first known use of special glyphs for the decimal digits that includes the indubitable appearance of a symbol for the digit zero, a small circle, appears on a stone inscription found at the Chaturbhuja Temple at Gwalior in India, dated 876 CE.

Soap existed before there were any records of Arabs

The earliest recorded evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 BC in Ancient Babylon. A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali and cassia oil was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC

And in linguistics, all languages derive from other lanugages, in the case of Arabic, the proto-semitic language. No language is pure and borrows from others. This is what makes a language rich. A language that doesnt change or borrow, dies. (like latin, sanskrit, classical arabic). Although al-fuS’Ha is very beautiful, and almost anything can be expressed in it, English is more useful for modern communication with a simple grammar and 500,000 words.

Mona,

I think you forgot hospitality, Arabs are very hospitable. And they love sweet things. Tea with 8 lups of sugar, that kind of sweet.

About a Great civilization, what about recent Arab:
-art
-literature
-poetry
-form and style of government
-way in which lower and higher class treat each other
-philosophy

lol maarten ancient babylon……who were the people of ancient babylon??
funny…how people are ignorant
oh ya for ur info…those things r NOTHING compared to the real influence arabs had on modern culture.

@Hudaman
I agree and I want to add
1-you need a visa wherever you want to go,and you buy it when the consulate refuses you.
2-you are the last on check points.
3-you love Flafel or Ta3mia.

09. Arabs will betray each other for bigger profits.
10. Arabs are stuck in the year 1500 in terms of mentality.
11. Arabs are extremely judgemental.
12. Arabs have big noses and will stick them anywhere they can.
13. The Arab language has been raped and mutilated and no longer contains the same depth or soul. (I’m not talking about written arabic, but spoken arabic).

sorry, but it is true. As an arab who grew up in the states, and has been living in Arabia for the past 12 years, my eyes see the dispair, and the corruption, and the crime much more clearly.

I’m tired of false pride! WE HAVE NOTHING TO BE PROUD OF! We have been slowly decomposing for over a century! We have not grown or gained more intelligence, wisdom, culture, or anything else for that matter in all this time. Pathetic. Let’s not talk ourselves up when there is no cause for it.

Shame too, because the Arabs did do one the greatest things in history for humanity. the greatest thing the arabs ever did was unite the worlds knowledge. If it wasn’t for the arabs who conquered most of the known world (proven as the biggest, most far reaching, civilisation that ever was), the world’s knowledge would have remained disjointed for a very long time. The arabs brought the knowledge together which allowed each discipline to grow.

sigh… we could have been better.

HAHAHA.. so sorry! I’m not usually that negative, but I just get really passionate about the state of the world!

@maarten
I just googled it and some sites say Arabs inventd 0 and others say indians….I always knew Zero was invented by Muhammad Bin Ahmad in 967 AD.
You also have to understand that a lot of the history has been changed to go against the Arabs.

As for soap: “Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today. The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it more as a pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the Crusaders’ most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash. Shampoo was introduced to England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed’s Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton seafront in 1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to Kings George IV and William IV.” (independent.co.uk)The Arabs invented the for what it’s known today.

As a Muslim I believe Arabuc is pure, it did not derive from any language. When Prophet Adam (PBUH) was in heaven, he spoke Arabic. When God put him down to earth, Adam (PBUH) did not speak Arabic anymore, he spoke Syriac.

@yazzy

The ancient babylonians were a mixture of sumerians (a people of unknown origin) and semites, but not arab semites!. Dont confuse the two. If arabs existed at that moment (which is uncertain, they left no records that far back) they probably lived in the desert as nomads, but who can tell?

@mohamed

then you should say “Arabs improved soap”

So you are saying Adam changed his language from Arabic to Syriac within his lifetime? Where did he learn Syriac? from whom? considering there were no other people to talk to at the time.

@yazzy

Enlighten me as to the REAL influences Arabs had on modern culture.
And Persians dont count, they’re Indo-Europeans.

Maarten,
Oh I give up…Eurpeans are gods gift on earth, now fuck off from this site u ignorant shithead…thank u

I noticed arabs have a peculiar way of dish-washing. They make a small tray with some soap and water in it, and then dip a sponge in it to wash the dishes with. I just make a tub with water and soap and submerge the dishes in it.

This reminds me of the time I was watching MTV Cribs and they were showing Shaq’s house. In his house, he had a bidet. And he was telling the audience that the bidet is used to wash your feet.

very funny.

@Mona
Tunshee ya mona, had wahad ahbal.

What influences have arabs had on modern culture? Hospitality and generosity maybe. And other than providing oil (50% of oil reserves)

How about social, political, economic, technological, legal advancements. I cant think of one arab country thats a leader of any of those mentioned.

Its really sad, especially since Arabs have quite a lot of pride.

Even hunter gatherer societies pre-dating religion at least had good social and political systems.

Arabs are all about love! No really think of it this way:

We love our family members. That’s why we don’t want them leaving the motherland for another place and when they do leave we much such a huge fuse trying to guilt-trip them into staying.

We like it when our kids marry inside the tribe since they’ll always be a stones throw away…and if not at least they’ll be living with family so when we visit we can see them both! (Married of child and the family of the spouse)

We love each other…and we all know that love is selfish, jealous and self centered. So it’s not surprise that there’s internal strife. And when it’s not brother against brother then it’s those brothers against their cousin. And if it’s an outsider than we’re all willing to put our differences in the short run to rally to each others cause.

As for those who bitch about Arabs not contributing to Modern culture…it’s because…well look at it this way. Have you noticed that the majority of the Hero roles in Hollywood are filled by white people and us colored folk fill out the rest…? Modern culture is something like that. If you aren’t the same than you’re out.

Also why should we keep telling what we contributed or didn’t contribute. You want to know, you search for it.

What I mentioned werent ”western” ideas.

Many advancements from modern science came from muslims, which muslims like to mention often. So they are proud of that.

Good political, legal and economic systems create a stable country with a stable economy. Thats quite universal too. Even the arab and muslim countries that are ”developed” arent stable because of underdeveloped political and legal systems, especially.

Technological expertise is quite important as well or youll be buying all youre products giving $$$$$$$ to other countries. And countries in general under the realist world model prefer to be self sufficient in important things.

The environment is always good to take care of because that is how we are able to survive. We should kiss the trees, they give us life. Not cement. Plus the quran cares about it if that gives you incentive : http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503544990

OR arab governments can not care about those things and when the oil runs out and the world hasnt got vested interests in them anymore, theyll realise (maybe).

We the Arabs are the best nation of the nations ,we don`t have alcohol in our life ,we don`t have drugs we respect woman we love our kids we invented the soap,
No matter what they say about us ,because of the israeli -arab conflict we have that negative image ,I know and I felt it in many instances

Thank you! You often write very interesting articles. You improved my mood.